3. The Cute Teacher

3

THE CUTE TEACHER

E xactly two weeks later, Aster found himself racing to the firehouse with the lights flashing in his truck to get his gear on and hop on the fire truck to get to the elementary school.

Most of the calls he'd gotten while he was volunteering were minor things and under control when he got there. Just smoke more than anything.

This time with the school and all those kids, he felt a panic like never before.

No way a couple of volunteers could contain it and he knew. Since smoke had been spotted this was a real concern.

He got to the firehouse the same time as three other people. They changed into their gear and were pulling out in the two trucks and racing the mile to the school.

The kids were outside all shivering and huddled together, teachers trying to calm them.

He saw someone rushing toward them and assumed it was the principal with some maintenance men next to him.

"There was a fire in the break room. We put it out," one of the maintenance staff said. "But the smoke still set off the alarms. Obviously, we can't let anyone else in until it's been cleared."

"Show us," the captain on duty said. Aster stayed back while the captain and another volunteer went in and they'd be ready if they had to rush in with the hoses.

He was looking around the building for any smoke or anything that could have been missed.

"Someone was smoking when they shouldn't have been."

He turned to see another woman standing there.

"Excuse me?" he said.

"Someone is always sneaking a cigarette where they shouldn't be. I heard that they were afraid they were going to get caught and thought they snuffed it out and threw it in the trash. It lit some papers on fire."

He kept the roll from his eyes, barely.

"We'll find out soon enough."

When the captain came out and over to him, they'd been told the same thing. The fire was in a garbage can and papers only, but they were going to do a sweep of the whole building.

They broke off on their own and walked around the rooms. He'd seen the name Ms. Scarsdale on a door and popped his head in there to look around.

The room resembled a rainbow on steroids experiencing roid rage.

Bright pops of color, paper animals, pictures, assignments. Every single inch of the wall was covered showcasing the kids' work.

Talk about a fire hazard, but he'd found it nice that she praised her students too.

He met up with Carter coming back down the hall. "That was the most excitement I've had in months," Carter said. "Pretty sad. Don't tell my wife."

He didn't even know what Carter's wife's name was or that the guy was married.

"No worries," he said.

Aster took his helmet off when he got outside and heard the captain say everything was clear.

The kids were getting back in line to return to the building.

"Hi, Fireman Allen."

He turned his head and saw the little boy who had used the bathroom at the firehouse a few weeks ago.

"Tyler, right?" he asked. He moved closer. Since Ms. Scarsdale was standing there freezing her butt off in a long navy dress with brown boots on, he thought he'd say hi and check her out some more.

"It is," Tyler said. "He remembered, Ms. Scarsdale."

"I see that," she said, then turned to him. "Tyler says he wants to be a fireman when he grows up now."

"Good for you," he said. Aster wasn't sure he'd wanted to do that, but most of his life he just wanted to get by. Wasn't that what his parents did? No one had a college education in his family.

He didn't want to sit in a classroom any longer than he had to. He was better off with hands-on training and got that and what he needed in the service.

Being the Director of Facilities for Blossoms, or any company, was never anything he'd thought he'd be. He knew it was because of Zane.

There were plenty out there more qualified than him or with a degree behind their name. Aster had been the MacGyver of his squad. Of every squad he was in. He managed the supplies, he made sure everything was cleaned and working the way it should, and then when something broke, he found a way to fix it with chewing gum and shoelaces. Half the time all they had were the shoelaces.

Zane had all the faith in the world in him and that was more than experience and education, he'd been told.

"Ms. Scarsdale, can we do a fire truck project please?"

He looked at the smile on her face. Not many kids asked for projects. At least that he knew of.

"I'll have to think about that," she said. "I'm sure I can come up with something."

"Maybe Fireman Allen can help you," Tyler said.

Aster looked down at her left hand and didn't see a ring. The kids were calling her Ms. but that didn't mean a damn thing. She could be seeing someone, for all he knew.

But Tyler didn't say he could help in terms of a date, but rather a project.

"Let's go, Aster," he heard.

"Gotta go," he said. "Enjoy the rest of your day."

"You too," she said and moved her kids into the long line to follow the rest into the building.

"What was that all about?" Carter asked when he climbed in the truck. Carter was driving.

"One of the kids from a few weeks ago said hi. He wants to be a fireman. Asked his teacher if they could do a fire truck project."

Carter laughed. "With the cute teacher, I see."

"I doubt the kid was thinking along those lines," he said.

"You'd be crazy if you weren't," Carter said. "Unless you're taken."

Aster didn't talk much about his personal life. He didn't think Carter even knew what he did now. When he'd first started to volunteer he only gave his background that Carter would have seen showing he'd been trained in the service. He'd said he was working construction, which was the truth when he first moved to the area.

It still was the truth with him working on the expansion building, but half the time he was in the plant dealing with things there too.

"No," he said.

"That was your opportunity to ask her out," Carter said.

He squinted one eye at Carter in the truck. "We were there on a fire call and you think I'm going to ask someone out? How long has it been since you've had to ask someone for a date?"

"Too long," Carter said. "I've been with my wife since college. I probably have lost touch with reality."

"Just a little," he said, holding up two fingers.

"It's a small community," Carter said. "Maybe you'll run into her again. She's from the area."

"You know her?" he asked. He wasn't sure why that surprised him. Maybe because he was from a town that had over a hundred thousand people, while Stonington, where he volunteered and where this school was, had maybe twenty thousand people, if that. Mystic barely five thousand.

He lived and worked in Stonington. Blossoms was split between the plant and the storefront on the main street in Mystic. Zane was only a few minutes away on the large property that belonged to Lily and held all the greenhouses.

The whole area was small and it seemed everyone knew everyone else's business half the time.

"Sure," Carter said. "Well, not personally. Her brother is a doctor and another brother a state trooper. I was a year ahead of River in school. I'm not sure how old Raine is. She wasn't in high school when I was there, I don't believe."

He didn't know which one was River, the doctor or the trooper, but found it funny that they both had water names.

"She looks young to me."

"I bet she's thirty," Carter said. "Or thereabouts. I'm thirty-six."

Which was two years older than him. He'd thought Carter was older than that. Guess maybe he lost touch with things too.

"Still doesn't mean she's single or that I'm going to ask someone out while I'm on the job."

"As I said," Carter said, "you'll probably run into her again."

When they got back to the firehouse, he changed out of his gear and went back to work.

"Everything okay?" Ivy Greene asked him. "I heard it was the school."

Ivy worked as an assistant to the three owners of Blossoms and was out at the plant a lot.

He found her upbeat and pleasant. Maybe a little annoying with it, but she was harmless in his eyes. He had dark things in his life so being around someone cheerful wasn't a hardship.

"Yes," he said. "Someone smoking and afraid to get caught had their cigarette catch papers on fire in the garbage."

"You'd think if they found the need to smoke, the least they could do was vape and not start a building with a bunch of kids in it on fire."

"I thought the same thing," he said.

"I'm glad it was nothing. I was worried and texted my future sister-in-law. She's a teacher there. I haven't heard anything, so I'm guessing she left her phone in the building and is too busy calming the kids."

"Most likely," he said.

"Raine is probably making a game out of it," Ivy said. "She's like that. I've never met someone so calm around kids before. She's a riot out with the girls, but a different person with the kids."

"Raine?" he asked. This had to be one of those small town things Carter was joking about.

"Yes," Ivy said, smiling. "Raine Scarsdale. She's a first grade teacher. My fiancé, Brooks, is her brother."

The state trooper. He knew that now. He didn't remember last names all that much but was positive if he'd heard Brooks's last name he would have remembered that. Which meant River had to be the doctor. Three kids with water names.

Guess it wasn't that much different than his mother naming him and his sister after flowers. Thankfully most people didn't realize that and just asked where Aster came from. His answer was always, "My mother." What was he supposed to say?

"I saw her," he said. "She's fine."

Ivy smiled. "She had a field trip to the firehouse last week. If you saw her today then you must have been volunteering that day. Were you?"

Guess Raine didn't talk about him. She knew his last name and he was positive Ivy would have caught on. "I was," he said. "I didn't know you were related to her."

"I feel like everyone is related to someone else at Blossoms. Don't you know that by now?"

He snorted. He'd been given almost a cheat sheet on it all. He knew Luke's wife, Heather, had met her multiple times between being friends with Luke and Heather working out at the greenhouses. He'd met Jasmine and Violet out there and knew Violet's husband, Trace. Heather and Daisy were best friends, though he'd only met Daisy once at a summer picnic. Not everyone could attend and he was still trying to keep names and faces together.

"It seems that way," he said.

"I'm glad everyone is okay," Ivy said. "How do you like working here so far?"

"I've been here a few months," he said.

He'd moved mid-July, so about three months now.

"Yes," Ivy said. "But you were working for Zane up until recently. Now you're working at Blossoms. It's different."

He hadn't been part of the organization officially during the summer party in August. They'd kept that part quiet, but since Zane had his employees at the party too, no one thought anything of it.

"It's not all that different," he said. "At least I don't think so."

"You're working around a bunch of women and not men," Ivy said.

"But they don't work for me," he said. "I'm just taking care of the building and the machines."

"I know," Ivy said. "But it has to be different than the service."

"There were women in the service too," he said, smirking. He leaned in close. "Most times they are raunchier than the men."

Ivy laughed. "That would be me."

He squinted one eye at her. "I'm sure it would be. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to get back to work."

"Bye, Aster."

He lifted his hand to wave over the construction going on.

"I see Ivy was chatting with you," Zane said. "She's a social one."

"She is," he said.

"It takes getting used to. Me, I just want to get to work, but I've learned they all want to talk."

He snorted over the dry tone that Zane delivered that statement with.

"You've got those cute kids," he said. "Chicks love kids."

"They do," Zane said. "And they don't like to be called chicks."

He laughed. "So noted, but it's not like I'm out rounding anyone up."

"Maybe you should," Zane said, smirking.

Rather than address that, Aster picked up the nail gun and went to help a few other guys out. He tried to ignore Zane's laughter. His buddy had gotten soft in the past few years, but he seemed much happier for it too.